The Reverend's take on 2009's most important developments filtered down to two big-picture stories. The Tea Party/Palin "patriot" movement and the Dick & Liz Cheney torture movement. While there is certainly cross-pollination in the two movements....I think, they are separate and distinct.

Yes, yes, I know.....the stimulus bill, unemployment, the health care bill, escalating Afghanistan, scaling down Iraq, the deepening obscenity which I lovingly refer to as the Knee Pad Media......all important in their own right....didn't make my final cut.

Between The Dick's Torture Tantrum and Teabag Central....both with potentially big-picture and enduring ramifications for America....I finally decided that the most important development of 2009 was......cue suspense music....The Rocky-Dick Horror Picture Show.

Political wingnut movements, astroturf or simply asinine, come and go. Nader's nuts.....Perot's posers....Palin's Teabaggers. Although there is no doubt that the faith-based, anti-science, conservative extremist group rallying behind the clueless, former 1/2 term GOP governor from Alaska will continue to be taken very, very seriously by Facebook-studying Knee Padders, (or worse....Twitters),......I've concluded that Sister Sarah and her band of loyal Baggers, while definitely a potentially long lasting development.....will run out of laughing gas soon and find itself abandoned on the side of the political roadway.

Not so for The Dick.....now newly improved with additional white-washing power.

Never in America's history has an ex-president or vice-president sought to delegitimize an incoming administration the way Richard Cheney has done in 2009. He is a national disgrace. Self-relegated to the shadows of obscurity and silence while serving as George W. Bush's vice-Dick, in 2009 The Dick couldn't be seen or heard enough.

Whether it was the Fluffster, David Gregory....or the Village Munchkin, George Stephanopolus...or the comedy troupe, Fox and Fiends....if it was Sunday..... and President John McCain wasn't on....it was Dick-Day.

The Dick is a sly one....mind you. As I watched The Dick over 2009, I came to the conclusion that he doesn't give a damn about national security....not that I EVER really thought he did. What Richard Cheney was concerned about during 2009 was his own criminal legacy, how he could whitewash that legacy, while simultaneously avoiding investigation and/or prosecution. Like Joe Lieberman, Richard Cheney is always primarily concerned about himself.

Here is why The Dick and His Flying Torture Machine is the most important development for America in the year 2009......

Just over half of Americans (54 percent) say torture is at least sometimes justified to gain important information from suspected terrorists, compared with 44 percent who said so 10 months ago.

America has also now accepted offshore, secret gulags. As of August....

"Fifty-five percent (55%) now oppose closing the prison, with 13% not sure. In January, just after the president announced his decision, just 42% were opposed."

There is no doubt in my mind that Richard Cheney's numerous appearances on Completely Compromised Media throughout 2009 has produced the long-lasting effect The Dick, and his Troglodyte Daughter, were seeking. In order to take the spotlight of criminality off of himself, America's Worst Traitor, enabled by the rotted corporate media corpse, convinced a majority of Americans that continuing medieval practices of horror was the way forward for the world's lone Superpower.

We can talk about the first black American president.....no doubt, a historic moment. We can talk about the deep and wide recession. We can talk about bailouts, Baggers and banksters......but 2009 will mark the time when America,....proud, free, just and exceptional America.... first embraced torture and secret, offshore, lawless gulag prisons.

The implications of this, The Reverend's pick for greatest of all developments in the year 2009, will surely blow-back upon our once proud nation.

I must admit, this comes as a surprise to me. I suppose it shouldn't have after all the crazy that has transpired over the past 10 years....but it did.

A majority of Americans now believe that torture and gulags are necessary and acceptable, in order to keep us all safe. As shameful as this is.....it is now woven into the national fabric.